


Diamond Heart

by LMX



Category: Rise of the Demigods (Podcast)
Genre: Body Horror, Canon Non-Binary Character, Canon Trans Character, D&D battle tactics, Gen, I haven't listened to Godsfall so this may be way out of line with canon, Major Character Injury, Post-Canon, Serious Injuries, Speculation, The Airship can be a home
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:20:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26125645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LMX/pseuds/LMX
Summary: The Dean's failed attack had started something growing in Teo, something bright and sharp and made of diamond. And it was growing, and spreading and digging into him. And it seemed like maybe, eventually, it would kill him.Caitlyn had warned him he was going to change, but he thought he'd have more time.





	Diamond Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Pretty much as soon as it started in canon, I knew I needed to write this bit of juicy body horror. I did not expect this many words. This podcast cast is just the best at bringing left-of-field body horror out of nowhere.  
> I don't know if Rise of the Demigods is officially dead, and I haven't listened to Godsfall, so I have been a little slapdash with creating some future-state for the characters to live in. Sorry about that.  
> Also, writing fight scenes with D&D rules is wild. I love it.

Barb hit the floor hard and stumbled to their knees as Desdemona – their erstwhile transport through the skies – alighted with barely a sound beside them.

"Thanks for the assist," Barb scathed, brushing the mud off their knees as they stood.

"You're welcome," Des simpered, clearly unbothered.

It was barely a beat, though, before her hands moved to press hard against her temples, her smile faltering as Janus started to wrest back control of his body. It never seemed to get any easier for him, but Barb had seen the process enough times now that it had stopped being interesting to watch.

The picturesque clearing where the Yakety Pack and friends had landed mere hours ago was now a churned-up mess, with some of the surrounding trees destroyed and uprooted, and an unnaturally dense shadow still clinging to those remaining. The airship had taken back to the skies at the start of the battle and had been circling, passing just overhead as Barb looked up.

Shielding their eyes against the sun, Barb could spot Kree's distinctive winged silhouette heading up to meet it. There was a flicker in the shadows, and suddenly the trees were just the normal level of dappled light, Zendar taking advantage of the shadow of the ship passing overhead to catch a ride.

The fight was clearly all done. Time to rally the troops and head home.

Janus made a pained noise – obviously Des was being difficult today – and Barb decided that being elsewhere was preferable.

They had a vague idea where Teo had ended up, glimpsed briefly from the sky during their unexpected flight, and hunting down Astrid in a forest was an exercise in futility, so they took a moment to get their bearings and headed that way.

Luna was the first one to come into sight, pacing back and forth between the trees as a white on dark green wraith. The direwolf was hard to miss these days, big as she was, but almost immediately behind her… "What the fuck?"

Barb bolted to where Astrid was crouched over Teo's crumpled form, not caring about their scraped knees as they dropped beside their teammates. Teo's shield was discarded to one side, and barely half a dozen gnome-sized paces away from that was the body of a Demigod Barb didn't care to identify, impaled on a row of sharpened wooden spikes which looked to have erupted out of the ground.

"What happened?" Barb asked, reaching for Teo's pulse and pulling away immediately as Teo yelled and thrashed at their touch. "What the hell?"

"I don't know, I found him like this. He isn't…" Astrid cut herself off as Teo whined in pain. "Teo, please…" she begged, hands hovering over his shoulder.

"Janus!" Barb yelled back the way they'd come, before turning back. "Is he hurt? Did you see…"

"He's obviously hurt, look at him."

"Did you try a potion, cure wounds, anything?"

"I'm out of spell slots, and every time I touch him…" Astrid gestured to where Teo was curled in on himself after recoiling from Barb's touch, shaking and gasping. "I don't know. Something's really wrong."

"Which is why we need to heal him, Astrid. Look, I have a potion, do you want to be bad cop or good cop?"

"What!?" Astrid demanded, patience obviously ragged.

"One of us is going to hold Teo down, that's bad cop. Good cop gets to pour a potion down his throat and hope he doesn't choke on it."

"What the fuck?" Janus said from behind them all.

"That's what I said," Barb shot back, offering Astrid the potion from their bag. "I'll be bad cop."

"Teo, what…?" Janus gasped as Barb shoved their knees under Teo's shoulders and pulled him half up into their lap, eliciting another broken yell and a hand clawing at Barb's arm.

"Can you see where he's hurt?" Astrid asked, throwing aside the cork and pushing in close.

"I can't see any blood," Janus replied, "But he's in so much pain, it's all I can get from him. Just… pain."

"Astrid, come on," Barb urged as Astrid tried to force viscous liquid past Teo's clenched teeth. "Woah, watch his arm!"

Astrid and Barb both flinched as a diamond sword slid into existence, and then froze in place as Janus cast Hold Person just in time.

All three of them took a moment, and then Astrid managed to force the potion between Teo's lips.

"OK," Barb said, "I know it's been said. But what. The. Fuck."

"There's something… in his chest. It's… inside. Scraping." Janus shuddered at the echo of the feeling, tears welling at the emotional bleed. "Hold Person only lasts a minute, what do we do?"

"The potion didn't help?" Astrid asked.

Janus was already shaking his head. "It took the edge off, enough that I could make contact, but believe me when I say it wasn't enough."

"Do you think they did something?" Barb pointed over at the impaled Demigod. "We need a cleric, or a Doctor. We can't handle this."

"Bridge with me, I'll cast a high-level Sleep to get him up to the airship. Maybe Belora can do something, or… We just have to try to find a hospital willing to help a demigod in the middle of this war that we're being blamed for."

Astrid narrowed her eyes. "Janus, we're all tired, are you sure you're up for bridging right now?"

"It's Teo," Janus shrugged eloquently.

Barb looked to Astrid. "Can't argue with that."

After so long, the bridge formed between them with hardly any effort, and even as the focus of two powerful Demigods, Janus stabilised it with only a small flinch. He cast Sleep with all their combined power and dropped the bridge as soon as he saw it take effect on Teodor's body, slumping directly from paralysis to a twitchy, uneasy sleep.

"You know it's been nearly six months since we've had a bridge go badly, and nearly two years since you got catapulted into the swamp, and you still flinch every time. It's almost as if you don't trust us."

"Shut up, Barb," he grumbled.

The mood appropriately broken, Barb brought up the thought that had been bouncing around their head. "We're close to… I mean, Doctor Mom isn’t far from here."

Astrid's head shot up. "Barb, are you serious? You've been so worried about leading the Hunters to her…"

"Aw, that's not fair, Janus got to use the 'It's Teo' line, and now it's not…"

"Woah, what happened to Teo?" Slug's voice broke in unexpectedly, and they all restrained yells of surprise with varied success.

"Slugs, do you have the speaking stone?" Janus asked. "We're going to need Zendar to move Teo without jolting him."

"On it!" With a flourish and a couple of displaced spiders, Slugs pulled the speaking stone from his pack, and it was only moments later that Zendar stepped out of the nearest shadows.

"What happened?"

"No time to explain…" Barb started, and then corrected to: "Or… no, actually no ability to explain because we don't know. But something's inside Teodor, hurting him, and if we move him too much it'll make it worse."

Zendar paused for a moment, whether calculating the distance to the best shadows in the airship, or just processing Barb's words, it wasn't clear. "I'll need at least three of you to bridge to shadow step this many people back to the ship."

"Oh for fuck's sake," Janus muttered under his breath, and Zendar quirked a smile in his direction.

"Or I could just take Teo, and the rest of you can walk…" It was truly impressive to Barb how Zendar could make it clear that he was staring at Janus' heeled boots with pupil-less eyes, and Janus bristled like he'd made a verbal comment.

"Someone grab Teo's shield," he said, instead of the retort that Barb was expecting, and initiated a bridge for what had to be the second time in ten minutes, not even flinching in front of Zendar.

"Got it!" Slugs declared, darting out of their circle for a moment and rejoining them along with Luna just as Barb and Astrid finished off the bridge and Zendar dragged them all through the shadows back to the airship.

There was an ogre lying across Teo's body. The angle at which it had fallen had saved his life, leaving him breathing short and hard against the weight on his chest, his arm numb below the shoulder. He remembered when the pain in his arm had been agonising, all encompassing, but now it was the pain in his chest that was drawing his entire focus.

Every breath he took was harder than the last, his ribs complaining… less than they should be, actually. He remembered that weight, and how it had pressed him into the ground and made his ribs creak. This felt… different. Like the pain was sharp, cold and pressing. Like armour deformed around a projectile.

His right arm was still numb, and the floating detached feeling in his brain nudged at the idea that there might be more to that, but his left arm was free and so he lifted it to push at the… at the… 

His arm flopped heavy onto his chest, not finding the form of an ogre resting on top of him. The impact sent pain *spiking* into him, so sudden and so sharp it felt like it went all the way through him and out the back, taking his breath away.

He'd been fighting. He remembered fighting. Not an ogre, but a Demigod who'd separated him from the others, expecting an easy kill. Teo had finally got the upper hand, and in the moment that he'd killed him…

"Teo? Teodor!"

He opened bleary eyes and immediately shut them again as the out of focus, prismed light cut into him.

"Goggles?" he asked, hearing the hoarse croak in his voice. Had he been hurt? How long had he been unconscious?

"Here." Astrid's voice, and Barb before that, so he was safe at least. His goggles were pressed into his hand, and he closed his hand around them for a moment, considering.

"Could you…?" he offered them back up. There had been more words there, when he'd started the sentence, but it was like everything was moving through his brain at 1/10th speed and thoughts were getting sidetracked on the way to his tongue.

"Shit, yes, of course." Astrid again, gentle as she manoeuvred the strap into place.

The light was less aggressive when he opened his eyes again behind tinted lenses. He was in a room – wood panels, sloped roof, a small arch window. Not the forest, not the airship.

Barb was sat at the end of the bed, back against the wall and legs crossing the width of the bed to dangle over the edge. Janus was in the corner, biting at a nail in what was probably his only obvious tell, and Astrid was hovering, looking down at him expectantly.

"What happened?" he asked.

"When Caitlyn said in the future you would be all diamond, did you know it was happening already?" Astrid asked, her attention on his arm, on the patch of diamond skin visible where the short-sleeved pyjama shirt he was wearing ended. It had formed where a sword had snuck past his shield and his armour and still somehow not cut into him.

Something dark and yawning opened up in Teo's stomach, and he became very aware of the absence of every layer of protection – armour or otherwise – he usually kept between himself and the world. He wrangled his uncooperative hand to pull the blanket up higher.

"Can I have some clothes?"

"Would you be able to dress yourself if we found you some?" Barb asked, frustratingly reasonable. "Or can we just get you some more blankets and call your modesty covered?"

"It's just us, Teo," Janus said from the corner, his voice so, so gentle – like Teo was some panicking child.

"Not the point," he replied, voice tight.

Barb jumped up from the end of the bed and pulled a blanket out of a cupboard – a hideous crocheted thing, with clashing colours and misshapen stitches.

"Here," they declared, piling it haphazardly on top of Teo, so he had to push at it to see the room again. "Better? Now, answer the question."

"This is the ugliest blanket I've ever seen," Teo said with wonder.

"Apparently it's difficult to crochet with one hand, who knew. Anyway, it's my favourite and my Doctor Mom made it for me, so be nice."

"Your…" Teo dragged his gaze away from the blanket, feeling like he was moving under water. Or under mud. Something thick. Viscous. "Barb, is this your room?"

"You're avoiding the question," Barb sing-songed.

Janus gasped and left the room, and Teo wondered if he'd picked up the answer to the question from his mind. Maybe that would be easier, to never actually answer any questions, just let Janus do his thing.

He picked at a loose stitch, considering how hard it would be to learn to crochet, conceding that he probably couldn't produce something any better.

It was warm, though, and between one slow blink and the next, the room went from day to night.

Barb was back on the end of his bed, eyes shut and back slumped in sleep, and Astrid and Janus were gone.

Whatever had been supressing the pain back to vague dreams of compression by ogre was fading now, and the sharp, scraping in his chest was building with each breath. Making his breathing shallow eased it for a moment, and then he moved slightly, shifted his arm and the new angle was worse and he couldn't find the previous position again, and the shallow breathing was turning into panicked breathing.

"Hey," Barb's voice, down by his feet. "Hey, you're alright." A pause, filled with more fraught breathing from Teo. "Well, you're not alright, there's diamond growing towards your heart and nobody knows how to make it so that isn't a thing that's happening right now, and none of us are sure if it's going to kill you or not, but…" Barb trailed off. "Fuck. Didn't think that all the way through."

"It hurts," Teo gasped into the silence, fisting his hand at the bottom of his breast bone, wanting to press, wanting to rub, knowing that it wouldn't help at all. "Barb?" He wasn't sure when he'd closed his eyes, but he opened them again and the room was empty. Teo gasped out a sob, only to startle a moment later as Barb clattered back in followed by a tall, severe looking human woman with greying hair.

"Teo, this is Doctor Mom. She's…" Barb hunted for a word for a moment. "Doctor Mom," they finished awkwardly.

"Barb, out please," Doctor Mom declared, glancing over as the door opened behind her. "And you two as well. Out." Barb wrung their hands together but headed back outside, taking Astrid and Janus. A bag was placed on the small side table, chipped wood and flecks of nail polish. Teo's head was spinning and he didn't know if it was how little air he was taking in or the presence of this previously mythological woman.

"Pain level, please Teo," she said, placing cool fingers on his neck. Teo's breathing calmed without any input from him, and the wave of pain was ebbing slightly as he found space to breathe. Threatening, with the pull back, a higher cresting wave following close behind.

"I'm okay," he answered breathlessly. "Are we safe here? We didn't… Barb didn't want to draw attention to you, so we didn't contact you. They were so scared you'd be targeted…"

"Teo." The firm word had all the force of a military command, and Teo's mouth snapped shut. "Your pain level, please. From zero to ten, where zero is 'feeling no pain' and ten is 'can't think of anything but pain'. I want you to know – because I think you're someone who needs to know this – that if you can't get out of bed and dress yourself right now, I expect a number above a seven."

"I… Uh… Seven?" Teo hedged, after a moment considering what it would take to get dressed right now.

"Reach up and touch your nose."

Teo's arm twitched at the instruction, and the movement felt like a punch to the chest. "I don't want to," he whispered, trying to re-inflate his lungs against the crushing pressure.

"Want to reconsider the number?"

"It's a seven when I stay still?"

"And you're holding very still right now, and breathing very lightly."

"Yes."

A cool hand squeezed his shoulder briefly. "Right. I'm going to put some drops under your tongue, and then you're going to count backwards from one hundred, and you're going to get some more sleep. In the morning, you'll be stronger for the rest, and we can have more of a conversation."

"Am I taking up Barb's bed?" Teo asked, before opening his mouth for the drops, observing the practiced skill with which Doctor Mom managed the medication one-handed.

"They were taking a shift watching over you, with the others. There's enough beds to go around."

The drops were sour and aromatic, and the instinctive flinch back made something sharp scrape inside him. Teo found himself picturing a long diamond dagger, cutting deeper into him, and couldn't hold back a noise as the pain spiked.

"Counting please," Barb's Doctor Mom coached, squeezing his hand in her own.

"One hundred," he half-gasped.

"Good."

"Ninety… nine."

They were all clustered on the landing leading up to the little attic room when Celine emerged again. Three young pairs of eyes met hers with all the fractured hope of youth in a time of war. How exhausting. How terrifying.

"He's resting," she said, instead of crying like she would have preferred. "We'll assess again in the morning, but the pain is significant."

"My turn to watch," the young aasimar, Janus, nodded to them all and headed past her into Barb's childhood room. An angel watching over the wounded soldier, Meredith would have found that so poetic. Meredith would have found a lot of this poetic. Celine was sometimes glad he had never met Barb. Barb didn't need any more melancholy in their disposition, and poets always brought melancholy with their joy.

"If we can't do anything… this is going to kill him." The young elf carried her own exhausted sadness, Astrid of the Stars. "His own divinity, how can we fight that?"

"Caitlyn said he'd turn completely," Barb replied, talking in secrets and shared stories that she couldn't hope to follow. "And… well, she said we'd all die, but she didn't say he'd die from that. He's been changing for… he said his eyes have always been that way."

She took a seat beside the child she had claimed as hers, even knowing differently. They wouldn't appreciate touch, contact, and so she didn't reach out, but she sat close and made herself available. Two years, and Barb was taller and stronger than she had ever seen them. Shoulders set and hands fisted. Battle-scarred, too, in a way that spoke of slap-dash clerics and no time for rest. Her heart ached.

"You said his body changes state to protect itself?" she asked, distracting herself by hunting for understanding of a biology which would likely only ever be represented in one singular being.

"It seems that way," Astrid agreed. "But he's been hiding it from us. Hiding how far it was progressing."

"It may be that his heart will change to protect itself from this internal attack, but if this pain continues, we must hope that the change is fast. A body can only handle so much, even one of diamond."

"Hey, Astrid?" The scratchy voice from the bed jolted Astrid away from the one line of prose she'd been staring mindlessly at for the last… well it had gone from pale dawn to full light through the small arch window, so a while. She shoved the children's book carelessly back on the shelf it had come from.

"Hey you," she forced a smile. Teo, still buried beneath two blankets, looked almost translucent between his exposed eyes, the diamond patches on his cheeks and the paleness of the remaining skin. He looked exhausted, and Astrid was heartsick.

"Is there any water? My mouth tastes awful."

"Sure." She stood to pour a little of the jug of water into the cup Doctor Mom had left, and carefully helped Teo raise his head to drink. "I wanted to say sorry," she said, as Teo turned his head and she pulled the cup back. "About… your clothes. If it makes you feel any better, only Doctor Mom was with you while she examined you. That probably doesn't make you feel better. I just mean…"

"Astrid," Teo cut in. "It's fine. Extenuating circumstances, I get it."

"It's not… fine. None of this is fine. You're in pain. Your divinity is hurting you."

Teo gave a breathy laugh. "Barb's divinity hurts them all the time. Every time Janus lets Desdemona out it takes more out of him to get her back under control. It's pretty much a dice roll what you get at the end of the day, and not everyone gets lucky. I've been lucky, Astrid. Over and over."

"This isn't what lucky looks like." Astrid reached out to take Teo's hand, squeezing it between her own and moving to sit down next to the bed so that she didn't have to look at Teo's face.

"I took the other Demigod's power," Teo said into the silence. "I think that's what caused… this acceleration." Teo went quiet for a moment, before continuing. "I didn't plan to do it, but I saw the opportunity, and I… I took it."

"Do you feel… more powerful?" Astrid asked tentatively. The number of times they'd had the knowledge and the opportunity to use the Hunter's tactics against them had been few, and the effects had been varied.

A sharp expulsion of air that might have been a laugh. "Right now I feel like wet spaghetti, and vaguely like someone's taking a blunt hacksaw to my chest, so no. Not more powerful."

"Every time the Hunters kill one of us they get stronger, their divinities get… boosted. Why is it doing this to you?"

"Dice roll." The hand in hers made a vague approximation of a shrug. "Maybe I did it wrong. Or it's fighting me. Or maybe this *is* me getting stronger, just not in any kind of way I want."

"How do you sound so calm right now?"

Another breath-laugh. "Oh, I am on the *good* drugs, baybee. I feel like I'm floating on the ocean, and everything is far away, especially my body."

Astrid pressed her forehead into the back of Teo's hand, longing for Luna. "I'm scared for you."

"We're at war, Astrid. We've lost people already."

"It's different when it's… We didn't sign up for this."

"Who ever does sign up for this kind of thing?"

Astrid chuckled wetly, wiping at her eyes. "Wow, you are so zen right now."

They sat in amicable silence for a while, listening to the house waking up around them, the sounds of breakfast being made, and Janus taking up the bathroom until Barb started banging on the door and yelling.

"Does Doctor Mom have a name?" Teo asked, out of the blue. "I feel so rude calling her Doctor Mom in my head."

"I've been too embarrassed to ask," Astrid admitted with a laugh. "She is lovely, though."

There was another pause, whistling from downstairs. "Astrid, why did you bring me here? That's Barb's Mom, we shouldn't be putting her in this kind of danger." There was a tightness in Teo's voice, and Astrid didn't know whether it was from frustration or pain, but she could guess from the way his breath hitched.

"Barb suggested it, and we didn't know what else to do. We don't have any way of handling things like this, Teo. You're the level-headed one."

Teo gasped and squeezed tight for a moment. "We should… go." His breathing was getting more ragged by the minute, and Astrid started to get to her feet, trying to avoid twisting Teo's hand in her own. "We can't bring the Hunters…"

"Teo, shut up and breathe. Breathe through it."

She could see Teo's eyes shut tight, and whatever he was planning on saying next turned into a pained whine. 

It would be fair to say Janus usually put more time and thought into generating a space before bringing people into the mind palace, but he'd been flustered by Astrid's yell and then thrown by the way Teo had been thrashing in the bed – despite Doctor Mom assuring them that the dosage of whatever she'd given Teo should let him sleep well into the afternoon.

He'd made the decision before he'd really thought at all – not even sure it would work – and when Teo appeared, fully armoured and wide-eyed behind red goggles, dropping to his knees on the hard stone floor, Janus had a moment to think that somewhere more cosy might have been nice.

"Teo, are you okay?" he rushed over, half-aware of the sudden confusion in the room beyond, where Teo had suddenly gone still.

"Ow?" Teo half-chuckled, hoarse like he'd been screaming. He pressed the heel of his hand into his breastbone and flinched.

"Can you feel it, here? I was hoping it wouldn't… Gods, Teo. Fuck." Janus folded down to the floor beside him, ignoring the curious look from Des a couple of tables over.

"No. No, it's fine. I… Thank you." Teo's voice wobbled, and Janus pulled Teo into a hug so they could both hide their faces.

"Don't let the others…" Teo gasped.

"I won't."

"I just need a minute…"

"Of course."

Outside of the windows, Barb had worked out what Janus had done, and was trying to explain to their Doctor Mom. Astrid's eyes were streaming tears, and she was staring like she was waiting to be invited in, but even if Teo hadn't asked, it didn't seem sensible to add any more water works to this party. Janus tried to remember if he'd ever seen Teo cry, and fisted a hand more tightly in his gambeson.

"I should have brought you here sooner, I'm sorry."

Teo shook his head, pushing back enough to swipe an arm across his face. "You had me when I needed it," he said wetly, a catch in his breath. "I don't know I could have handled… well. Much more of that." Teo breathed deeply for a few more breaths. "Am I dying?"

"Doctor Mom doesn't know. It's spreading, faster now than it was before."

Teo sat back on his heels, covering his face for a moment before looking up. "If it spreads to my heart – even if I survive that – the rest of me dies almost immediately, right? No heart means no blood, and no tissue is going to survive without blood." Teo squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. "If I survive, it'll just be my divinity keeping me moving, keeping me animated. Am I still me after that? Am I still gnomish? Am I still alive?" His questions were frantic, terrified, and Janus had no answers.

"I'll be honest, Teo. That sounds like a tomorrow problem. Today I just want you not to be in pain."

Teo shuddered, scrubbing his hand through his hair and then burying his head in his knees before pushing to his feet. "We shouldn't be here, we have to go. We're here because of me, and if the Hunters find Doctor Mom, I'd never forgive myself. Whatever's happening to me, it's going to happen, no matter what. We should just… just go."

"We're not going anywhere."

"This is insane. We can't be here. That's Barb's most important person, and we're just sitting here like a great big flashing beacon, drawing them right to us. I'm not worth this."

Janus hadn't even seen Des move, but she inserted herself between them like a force of nature, shoving Janus to the side and pushing a long nail into Teo's chest. "You are an idiot," she said, with pointed intent. "And I'm bored of listening to you."

"Des," Janus warned.

"I… Uh… Sorry…" Teo replied, wide-eyed in the face of Desdemona's dramatics.

"Des, now is not the time," Janus continued.

"Go fix your mascara, you fool," she snapped. "And let me talk for once."

"My mascara is fine, and letting you talk rarely helps."

"Well, maybe this will be one of those rare times, hmm?"

Janus narrowed his eyes. "Teo, can I bring in the others now?"

"Yeah." Teo took a step away from Des, and then moved to take a seat at the nearest table, swiping away any remaining signs of tears. "Yes, I'm good."

"Des, be nice," Janus warned, and stepped away from them both towards the window. Snaking a tendril of power out towards Astrid and Barb, he hesitated for a moment before adding another to include Doctor Mom.

Des was leaning in to whisper in Teo's ear as the others started to materialise around him, and Janus gave them a moment before completing the connection. He didn't know what it was that Desdemona thought she had to say, but it wasn't like he knew what to say either.

"Janus, what the hell," Astrid declared, as she stepped through.

"You only just now think to invite us all to the party?" Barb clarified, glancing over at Astrid as she headed towards Teodor and Des. Doctor Mom was looking around herself curiously, and Janus was reminded that the décor was still some high-end tavern from his youth.

"Teo doesn't like everyone seeing him in pain," Janus explained, as the Doctor moved to join Astrid and the others at the table. Teo was awkwardly patting a crying Astrid on the shoulder, shooting them a pleading look.

"You're a dreadful Demigod of secrets," Barb ignored Teo's look. "Even I could work that one out."

"He thinks we should leave before the Hunters arrive."

Barb's eye-roll spoke volumes. "Yeah, well. If he'd stop inconveniently dying, maybe we would."

"I've never kept the mind palace open and occupied for more than ten minutes before, but the pain doesn't seem to reach him here. If I can keep it active…"

"What, until you both waste away?"

"Maybe just until his divinity kills him," Janus shot back, knowing he was losing control of his temper and hating the feeling. "Maybe I don't want to have to watch that happen to my friend. We're all going to die in three years anyway, so why not now?"

"He's not going to die. He's going to change. And it looks like it's going to hurt, a lot. But if he changes and he isn't in his body when it happens, what if he can't go back? You already have more than the standard occupancy in your head," Barb gestured at Desdemona.

"How do you know he'll make it? How can you be positive about *this* of all things?"

"You know, I was thinking about that. And you know what it comes down to? His eyes work. They shouldn't, not at all, it doesn't make any sense. But if his eyes can work, then everything else can too. He's going to be fucking conspicuous afterwards but…" Barb shrugged. "Hard to kill? I mean… literally *hard*. Frankly, I'm kind of offended. Body horror's supposed to be *my* brand."

Janus shoved at Barb's shoulder, feeling the adrenaline of the last… had it only been a day? This brief respite had him shaky with relief. It couldn't last, time was already ticking down, but…

His eyes slid over Barb's shoulder towards the window, where the bed still held the small form smothered in blankets. He looked peaceful, for the moment, pale skin and… very red lips. "Barb…" Janus physically turned Barb and pointed, "Is that…"

"Teo!?" Astrid yelled from behind them, and Barb echoed with "Oh, fuck," flickering out of the mind palace and lurching towards Teo on the bed, pulling him onto his side so the blood welling in his mouth could drain, Doctor Mom moving barely a beat later.

Janus glanced behind him, but Teo was already gone, out of the mind palace and into the real world, where his real, physical body was coughing up blood.

Kree and Malvorn were stooped over the big table in the captain's quarters - generously declared the War Room - as Zendar wandered in. Kree was nervous, his right hand flickering and distorting in Zendar's perception as he played with a mote of light or some other manifestation of his divinity.

"News?" he asked, taking a seat on one of the benches that lined the room, so that he didn't have to pretend to read over whatever documents they were reviewing. There were relatively few people these days who didn't know about his sight, but enough that living in such close quarters with so many of them was exhausting.

Luna stood from where she'd been sitting beside Kree and wandered over to prop an oversized head on Zendar's knee. He obediently scratched behind her ears, and she made some kind of pleased grumble that Astrid would surely have been able to translate. It couldn't be easy for Luna either, being around so many people who didn't understand her, but she was braving it out.

"Nothing direct," Malvorn offered, without turning from the table. "But there's not been any additional Seeker troops moving towards the town either, so it seems they're still in the clear."

"Is Ren still embedded?"

"We got his last missive on schedule, but it's too risky to let him know what's happening." Malvorn paused for a moment, considering. "No offense to Teodor, but Renald's mission is bigger than any one of us."

"It's not like we know anything to tell him anyway," Kree added. "We're as much in the dark as anyone."

"Three days before we expect contact. We'll just have to trust in the power those four wield."

"They'll be… truly terrifying if he dies," Zendar considered. "They're reckless enough with that one steady head amongst them."

"Let us hope it doesn't come to that. We've got six more checkpoints to hit before we can come back around for the rendezvous. Between Luna and the hat of disguises, we're doing a convincing job appearing to be our full force, none of the chatter we're picking up suggests either Hunters or Seekers suspects us to be down one team. We just have to keep our enemies away from their door until they can rejoin us." Malvorn was starting to sound tired, still sorting some papers, making pencil notes on others.

"Take your rest, Malvorn. We're on the right path."

Kree chuckled. "He's avoiding going to bed because last night Francis invaded his bunk."

"I'm not afraid of spiders," Malvorn blurted in retort. "They just… should stay with Slugs. There aren't enough beds on this damned airship, and the shift-sleeping plan doesn't work if people leave… traces of themselves in the beds."

"You're just missing Janus," Kree cawed, and Zendar had to supress a smile as Malvorn blustered through a denial. Strange how easy they had all become with one another. It was hard to imagine the socially awkward Kree of their time at the temple even talking to Malvorn, let alone ribbing him in such a way.

"I don't think we can…"

Zendar was cut off as Slugs slammed through the door. "News from the network, six Hunters broke off from the Dooren group ten hours ago. Heading straight for them."

"How long will it take them to get there?"

"Current estimation, late this evening."

"Can we intercept them?" Kree asked, but Malvorn was already shaking his head.

"The whole point of attacking the outer checkpoints was to keep attention away from them. It'll take us another day to get back."

"They'll just have to hold them off until we can get to them."

"Three underpowered Demigods and an injured Teodor holding off six powered-up Demigod Hunters for… What, four hours?"

"More like eight."

"Right. Who's got Sending?"

It wasn't a good thing that Barb knew what agonal breathing sounded like – lungs trying desperately to keep the body functioning as the heart failed. It wasn't a good thing, and it didn't bring back any good memories and in fact it brought back quite a few bad ones.

It was worse knowing that it was a sound that couldn't sustain life, and yet there was Teo, gasping for breath over and over and over… It had been… minutes, definitely, since they'd stopped their fruitless attempts to intervene, but Teo was still moving, still gasping, and still unresponsive.

Doctor Mom had confirmed his heart not beating, not even flesh enough that chest compressions would do anything other than saw a diamond blade deeper into him, and Janus had fled the room. At least Teo didn't seem conscious of what was going on now. Small mercies.

There had been a flurry of activity at first – helpless, hopeless activity, but now there was just this. Just Teo, gasping out sickening dying breaths but never actually…

There was a buzzing under Barb's skin that made them want to run. To head out into the city and hide and pretend that this wasn't a thing right now. That they weren't a group of hunted individuals, wanted as much by the supposed law keepers as by the other lawless glory seekers.

"This is…" Astrid started, but couldn't find anything to compare it to, and fell silent again.

"Horrific," Barb offered, and Astrid shuddered.

"Yes."

"I can't do anything here," Doctor Mom said, stepping back from the bed and giving Barb a look they couldn't interpret. "Divinity has to take over now, medicine can't help."

"Thank you, for trying." Astrid said, calmer than she should be. Barb wanted to scream. "I'm sorry we brought this to you."

"I'll go into the hospital, show my face, hand in a research report. It will help explain my absence, I have lost days to research in the past."

"Are you sure?" Barb asked, not really sure what they were asking, but needing to ask.

"Yes. It will delay suspicion." Doctor Mom stepped up close and pressed a hand to his arm. "I'll be ok."

"Be safe. Please be safe."

And then it was just Barb and Astrid and Teo's body, which was dead and still gasping.

The buzzing turned into twitching, Barb's mind running the gamut of potential places they could get to within minutes. They didn't even realise they'd turned to go until Astrid grabbed their wrist on the way out of the door.

"Don't touch me," they growled, spiked armour forming without thought as they yanked back.

"Barb." There was blood on Astrid's hand, but she didn't seem to notice it. "Don't you dare leave me alone with him right now."

"With who, Astrid? You and I are the only two living things in this room right now."

Astrid blanched. "Gods damned it, Barb."

"Damn *them*, Astrid. They're the ones that did this, for some kind of sick power play, and they're not even here to claim their mess."

"No, they're not here. Teo's God Parent is not here to help him. But we're here for Teo right now, and you don't get to bail."

"I've… I've got a plan, ok?" There hadn't been a plan, not until that exact moment, but now there was a plan and they weren't going to let Astrid stop them. "Trust me, Astrid."

Astrid made a noise of pure frustration, but stepped back. "I've known you too long now to fall for 'Trust me', but whatever you're up to can't be worse than this." Astrid shrugged. "If you can help him, who am I to stop you? Just… ask for help *before* you get hurt, okay?"

"Sure, yes." They shot one last look at Teo, and then Astrid. "I'll be right back."

"You better be."

Janus was making a sandwich. He was making it with a great deal of exaggerated care, because if his mindfulness slipped for even a moment then he was going to picture Teo, face stained with blood, veins in sharp relief in his neck as his eggshell blue skin greyed like death.

So… Janus was making a sandwich.

Doctor Mom had passed him earlier, resting a hand briefly on the back of his own before heading for the door. And then Barb, not even glancing in his direction as they grabbed the bone that had been half-concealed in the umbrella stand and banged out of the door.

Astrid appeared, some time later. "Are you making a sandwich?"

She was feeling guilty, for leaving Teo alone in that room in perpetual limbo, but being alone with him had been worse than the feeling of guilt and so she was here now, her secret guilt banging on Janus' defences. It matched his own, so he blocked it out.

Instead he looked down at the two pieces of bread on the board in front of him. "I couldn't… find anything to go inside," he offered, his own voice sounding unfamiliar and distant.

Astrid stared for a moment, and then stepped away. Returned a moment later with cheese and meat and worked around Janus to complete the sandwich, even as he acknowledged that he should just step out of the way and give her room.

"Where did Barb go?"

There was half a finished sandwich in front of him. The thought of eating turned his stomach.

"Don't know." Astrid had the other half, sitting at the table. Janus forced himself to turn, to engage. "They said they had a plan, I wasn't in the mood to fight."

"How long can Teo…" Janus gestured vaguely.

"I don't know. I don't even know if I want… The idea that his divinity might keep him in this state in perpetuity might be worse than him dying at this point."

"If we wakes up… He was scared that he wouldn't be… himself after the change happens. That surviving this change wouldn't guarantee it was still *him*."

"Can you imagine anything that would change who Teo is, really? I mean… all this shit, the world falling to pieces, and all he ever does is defend us, take hits for us… Kill for us. He does things he hates because we need him to. You think some… fancy fucking crystal is going to take him from us?"

"Sometimes I'm scared that what I did in that first class at the temple, sharing Teo's secret…" Janus swallowed. "I was scared for a long time that Teo stuck by us because he thought we might use that against him. That we had this power over him, and it was my fault."

Astrid stared for a long moment, and then looked away. Picked up her sandwich. "How long have you been holding onto that?" she asked, without looking back at him.

Janus found a wobbly laugh somewhere close to hysteria. "Since pretty much as soon as it happened."

"And you never said anything to him? To us?"

"I… tried?" Janus thought through their various conversations. All the times he'd tried to express that feeling that filled him – to explain that he'd never had friends that weren't rivals, that even Desdemona challenged him instead of accepting him, that the friendship in this small group of tired, haunted survivors meant everything to him. "You know I would never intentionally hurt him, right? I didn't even know what my powers did back then, I hate that the first thing I did with my divinity was hurt a friend."

"Teo is strong, Janus. Strong enough that he didn't even need his divinity to be a powerful fighter. He's strong enough to tell us to go fuck ourselves if we tried to threaten him. He wouldn't stick with us because he was scared. He's stronger than that."

"Strong like diamond?"

"I mean… no one's going to be accessorising with a bigger rock." Astrid snorted.

"Shit, Astrid. That's terrible."

"At least…" Astrid froze for a moment, eyes over his shoulder towards the kitchen window.

They were familiar enough with each others' body language that Janus was diving for cover even as she said; "Get down!" Ducking in behind the cupboards and starting to send investigative tendrils of power towards the front of the house.

"What did you see?" he asked, mind brushing past neighbours and finding something more powerful hiding in the fields and farmlands beyond.

"Dragon shadow, and then something moving in the fields, heading this way."

"Barb's still out there. And Doctor Mom."

"Can you reach them?"

"And say what?"

"Tell Doctor Mom not to come back to the house yet, and then tell Barb what we've seen. They might have a better view on the situation. It would be better if we're not all trapped in the house when the Hunters come for us."

Barb looked up at the monolithic shrine to Vodon, trying to work out what they were planning on doing here, whether they were truly willing to ask a favour from another god. It wasn't like it had ever really helped in the past.

The God of War cut a threatening figure, heavily armoured and armed. Taller than life, or else a Giant of some kind. There was energy crackling beneath Barb's skin that could have just been adrenaline from the run out to the graveyard, or could have been something more divine.

"Hey Vodon," they started, hoping they didn't sound as uncertain as they felt. "I know I'm not your God Baby. To be honest I'm not even totally sure that Teo is your God Baby because apparently Teo doesn't like to share *anything*, even when he's being eaten alive by…" They took a brief beat. "So stupid," they muttered to themselves. "Anyway, this is kind of a last-ditch effort, so… What the hell, right?"

The air turned chill for a beat, a wind shifting the leaves sharply. The quiet that came after made Barb shiver. They took the bone splinter that they'd been working on since they set out from the house, and used it to draw blood across the back of their forearm. "Ow, fuck," they muttered, taking one hand to smear the blood over the monolith.

"We've been at war for years now, and Teo's fought this whole time. I don't know if he's fighting in your name, or just because it's who he is, but if that isn't sacrifice enough then we've got no chance of reaching you. Just… Whatever you're doing to him, make it *fast*. He doesn't deserve…"

"Barb," Susomou's sending spell hit like a lightning strike, but at least there was no one around to hear Barb yell. "Six hunters seen heading to you, predicted arriving eight pm. Let us know your status. Heading to you, will arrive two am. Be safe."

The connection was open for the return message, and Barb resisted the urge to fill it with profanity. 25 words was far too few for everything they wanted to say. Well, at least if their cover was blown the team didn't have to try and be subtle anymore.

"Teo is…" Dead. Dying. In agonising pain as he turned to living diamond… "Bad. Get here fast."

Barb pressed down on the cut, and cast a last look at the monolith before turning to start for the graveyard gate.

Janus' sending was more gentle than Susomou's, giving them just a little warning before the words started. "Enemies spotted near the house. Doctor Mom has been warned. Keep your eyes open and head back if you can."

"Well fuck," Barb replied, because sometimes you just had to. "Contacted by home base, said six hunters eta eight. Guess they're early. Others eta two. On our own for now. Look after Teo." The connection cut, and Barb started to run.

Teo was standing on a battlefield that was frozen in a moment. It wasn't a fight he had been part of, he didn't recognise the location or the pageantry on either side, but it was a pitched battle. There were already a massive number dead or dying. An explosion had thrown a dozen forms into the air high over the heads of the other fighters, hovering alongside debris and fire in defiance of gravity.

He looked down at himself, and found his body naked and changed. From shoulder to shoulder, and down his chest to his hips, his body was translucent, perfect crystal. He could see light shining through the shape of him, and it made him feel exposed, highlighted. He wanted desperately to cover up, and even as he thought it, his clothes and his armour formed around him.

With everything suspended in place and time around him, movement on his right drew his attention immediately. Approaching through the battlefield was a being of indeterminate race, hair covering ears and skin shining with a light that meant it was simply bright rather than an identifiable colour. The figure stopped at a couple of clusters of fighting, touching sword-wielding hands or lifting shields a fraction. They didn't focus on one side or the other, but seemed pleased at each interaction. They came to stand alongside Teo, and rather than speaking, turned to stand alongside him and look out on the battlefield, as if they were sharing this moment.

"I don't know why I'm here," Teodor said eventually, into the silence.

The figure glanced over and considered for a moment. "Your flesh can no longer be cut. Why do you cover yourself with armour?"

"I…" Teo choked a little. "I don't like the shape. It used to be easier to… hide it. Before this happened."

"Hmm…" the figure mused. "It makes sense now, why you would fight it. A solidification. Permanence."

"I don't think it did me any good," Teo admitted. "Fighting, I mean. It mostly hurt, a lot."

"When you form a weapon, this shape is familiar to you. The sword, correct?"

Teo reached out and formed the diamond sword in place of his right arm. "It's the type I used to train with, at the fort. Before. It's harder to wield without a wrist, but it's strong."

"You created an elbow, why did you not form a wrist?"

Teo frowned down at what he was slowly becoming more comfortable referring to as his arm. "I never designed this. I never asked for this. I had a sword hand," he held out his left hand where diamond was creeping down out of his sleeve and over his knuckles, "And I had a shield, and that seemed to serve me. This formed… without conscious thought."

"No matter your form, a fighter is a fighter. But even great skill can be improved with better tools." A hand reached out, hesitated before touching his arm. "May I?"

"I… yes?"

The figure frowned, pulled back. "No. Perhaps I will not. You will do this – this material is your own, reshape it."

"What?"

"Your arm is shaped by you. Take conscious control over it. You are an engineer, you know the workings of a body. To wield such a blade, you would be stronger with a wrist. Provide yourself with one."

Teo stared down at his arm, willing it into a different shape, retracting it and bringing it out again only for it to look exactly the same. "I don't know how."

"And yet you have resisted this change with such fortitude. Where is that strength when it comes to changing something which already is?"

The bite of disappointment, of frustration, finally hit boiling point inside Teo. Patience reaching its limit. "I thought I was fighting for my life," he shouted. "I thought this would kill me."

The figure was suddenly wielding a sword and shield, feet sliding into a wide stance. "If I make you fight for your life, will you fight to change what is?"

"Woah, woah!" Teo backed up a couple of paces, bracing his diamond arm in front of him, and reaching for the buckles of a shield that wasn't there one moment and was a moment later. "I don't know how!"

"Then you will die." With that matter of fact statement, the figure dropped his shoulder and charged as the battle around them recommenced.

"Six?" Astrid checked, shifting so she could check the window again. The warm and homely house was drawing in around them like a trap, and all nerves were on edge.

"That's what they said," Janus nodded, eyes shut as he reached out with his mind.

"And we don't get any backup."

"They'll arrive too late to do us any good. But," he took a considering breath, opened his eyes to meet Astrid's. "Barb said the Hunters shouldn't be here until eight, it's barely four. They must be a scouting team. If we can we move Teodor, we could get out of the city without being seen before the rest arrive."

"We'd be leaving Doctor Mom here, unprotected."

"She'll have plausible deniability if we're not found in her house." Janus shrugged. "She's a Doctor, she'll have protection."

Astrid spent a long minute trying to find something else, some other option. "I hate this plan, but you're right. It just feels so…"

"We've gotten used to travelling with the group. Having all those skills at our disposal. A little shadow stepping would definitely come in useful right now."

"Right now, I'd just settle for Teo," Astrid said, heading deeper into the house to start to collect up all their things.

Janus smiled helplessly, and reached out to tell Barb the plan.

"Barb, come here, Barb, go get a cart, Barb, don't get caught else you'll get us all killed," Barb muttered to themselves, gently easing the latch on the stable and slipping inside.

The mail house yard was always bustling, and there were always new faces in and out, horses switching from cart to cart. Barb had picked a smaller, older looking cart, moving with authority and chiding the young stablehands for anything and everything until they scattered out of the yard. It hadn't taken long to switch all of the mail and packages into another mail coach – one larger and less likely to notice the additions.

The horse gave them a sleepy look, and then looked more interested as they pulled out a lead rein.

It followed them out into the yard obediently and let them harness it to the cart, and then stood obediently as they pulled a second horse alongside the first. Every jingle of buckles and every snort and stamp of hooves made Barb freeze and glance towards the mail house.

But it was late in the afternoon, and the majority of the mail coaches were loaded and waiting for the drivers to finish their dinner before they harnessed up the horses and set out. No one even glanced their way as they stepped up onto the cart seat and turned the horses onto the road.

"Barb's close, are you ready?"

Astrid nodded hesitantly, and they stepped into the attic room together. Teo was still on the bed, diamond creeping up his neck and over the knuckles on the hand which rested on his chest. His unmoving chest.

Astrid sobbed. "This shouldn't be worse than… before," she breathed.

"Fuck." Janus swallowed heavily. "Is he going to be… heavy? I mean… diamond's a hell of a lot denser than flesh."

"Guess we'll find out." Astrid secured the blanket around Teo's shoulders, handing the crocheted eye-sore to Janus. He folded it with exaggerated care and returned it to the shelf Barb had pulled it from.

With careful movements, Astrid wrapped a hand around Teo's shoulders, and another beneath his knees and lifted. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but he didn't weight any more than a gnome his size should. She was trying not to notice how solid and unyielding the flesh was beneath the blanket as she adjusted her grip.

"OK. We're good."

"Barb's right outside," Janus confirmed. "Time to go."

Barb wasn't sure if the horses were picking up on their own anxiety, or if they were able to sense the Demigods closing in, but they were both fractious and stamping as Barb pulled the cart up the lane outside Doctor Mom's house.

Janus stepped out of the shadows of the porch as they pulled to a stop, looking both ways and to the sky before reaching back for their bags and Teo's shield.

Barb pulled back the tarp and let Janus load everything up, and then turned to try and quieten the horses as Janus clambered on board and reached back to help Astrid up with Teo. Barb spared a glance for Teo as the tarp was pulled over again and Janus climbed up to sit beside them.

"Good to go?"

Barb drove the horses forwards instead of answering, pulling the purloined cloak back over their head to cast their face in shadow. The evening was drawing in, but they weren't alone on the road out of town. They joined a train of market people, mail coaches and locals, and didn't draw any attention from the other travellers done with their day and eager to get to where they were going.

There was a bottleneck at a checkpoint on the way out of the city proper, and they were two vehicles from freedom when Barb noticed the thing they'd been hoping not to see.

"Guard with a seeker staff," they pointed out quietly.

"On it," Janus replied as the cart rolled forwards. Barb didn't look at him, not wanting to draw any attention, but it was hard to miss the guard collapsing to their knees, the staff hitting the dirt.

"Oh, gosh," Barb said as the other guard waved the cart ahead of them on. "That poor guy. Is your buddy ok over there?"

The guard turned, and they didn't slow as they passed by.

The road widened as the cart pulled away from the city, gaps between houses becoming wider and fields and farms replacing closely packed homes. They were almost completely out of the city, their fellow travellers peeling off in various directions, when the dragon shadow flitted across the fields nearby.

In the half-light, it took Astrid a moment to spot the dragon casting the shadow. Around them the other horses were being urged faster, heads ducked low and eyes wide, small children hushed.

"There's only two of them right now," Barb said, under their breath. "We won't get a better chance."

"We've only *seen* two," Janus pointed out. "And one of them is…" He gestured up at the dragon.

"If they don't find us, they're going to destroy this place looking," Astrid hissed from the bed of the cart.

Their little caravan was close to tree cover, to the point where the fields gave way to the wilderness. But not close enough as the dragon swept down and, without missing a beat, plucked the driver from the mail coach two ahead of them and lifted up into the sky with its screaming prize.

Around them, people scattered – leaving burdens, horses and carriages alike as they fled into the woods and the shelter of nearby houses. One or two of the horses broke free from the carts and bolted, others dragged their carts down the road without drivers, a pair of oxen demolished a couple of fences as they made their way at terrifying speed away from the road.

"I am the Demigod of Flames," the dragon announced over the screams. "I take this meal as my tithe. Pray I take no more."

Astrid's shooting star was almost blinding in the dusk, and it hit the dragon head on, with Janus' spell impacting the glowing target moments later. Barb scrambled down from the cart, catching their bone staff as it sprang out from underneath the tarp. The moment they were on soil, a bone wall started forming up around them, curving protectively around the cart.

The earth elemental Demigod of Agriculture emerged out of the tilled soil, even as the dragon turned to face its attackers.

"Oh, the demigodlings are fleeing already, Sigmund," the elemental ground out, with a voice like gravel. "Looks like we might get first pickings."

"Well…" the dragon said, its chest puffing as it circled closer. "I've never been good at sharing." Its throat flickered for a moment, and then flames spewed forth, incinerating the top foot of Barb's wall, and hitting Janus square on as Astrid threw her weight back and tipped the cart into a makeshift barricade.

The shaft connecting them to the panicked horses broke, and they hauled themselves free and into the forest.

"Everyone alright?" Astrid yelled, looking over the burn that had caught her arm and shoulder, and then out at the others. Janus scrambled down beside her, clearly seriously injured as he ducked behind the flimsy cover. Barb was tummy time behind their damaged wall, but only looked singed.

"OK," they raised a thumb, the other hand patting out flames on their cloak.

"Ow," Janus wheezed.

Teo was still bundled up in the tarp, now at the base of the cart where Astrid had tipped it, and she resisted the urge to unwrap the fabric to check on him. It wasn't like she could check for signs of life. 

Janus willed away the burning sensation, aware that it was because he'd literally just been burned, but not willing to fold to it just yet. He resisted the urge to pull at his scorched clothes, knowing it really wouldn't help the pain.

He forced himself up onto his knees, spitting acrid phlem into the drainage ditch by the side of the road.

Astrid seemed to have dodged the worst of the flames and was already looking down the road. "We need to draw their attention," she said, pulling back into cover for a moment.

"I was afraid you'd say that," Janus said, coughing raggedly as his throat objected.

"Do you need healing?"

"No, I can do it, go."

Astrid bolted for the mail coach along the road as Janus watched the dragon wheel through the sky and hurriedly tried to stabilise the worst of the burns before it came in for another attack.

Barb was spinning around the wall to lay into the earth elemental with their bone-enhanced fists and shins, ducking back into cover at the last moment as the elemental tried to slam back.

As Janus looked down the road to try and identify somewhere he could move to, to draw the fire away from Teo, the dragon slammed into the ground beside Astrid, tossing the no-longer screaming coach driver aside as it swiped its immense tail into her, shoving her into the side of the coach and scraping one set of claws down her side as it planted the others into the wooden sidings of the coach and tore it to splinters.

Janus could see Astrid's grip on her swords falter at the pain, but she spat blood at the creature, and called down a moonbeam with all the force of her God Parent behind it.

The dragon staggered back at the force of the column of radiant light, sheathed in white flame for a moment. Taking a breath, Janus reached out and pulled on the dragon's mind, searching for trauma and knowing it would be bad. It would be worth it, if he just could keep it there a moment, the moonbeam would keep doing damage and they might have a chance here. Right now they were seriously outclassed.

The big problem with being part of the group that *didn't* go around killing every other demigod they met, was that their divine powers had capped out, and their enemies' powers grew with every horrific ritualistic death.

Janus knew what he was about to see would be bad, had braced himself, but he still had to lurch for the drainage ditch and lose the half-a-sandwich he'd forced himself to eat, as he recalled along with the dragon the moment its guardians had joined in on the abuse and brandings and torture on learning its status as a demigod.

He glanced back over, needing that to have been worth it, only to see the dragon spin in his direction, eyes narrowed.

Barb grit their teeth against the sound of Astrid's yell, forcing themselves to focus on the immediate threat. If they could get rid of this earth elemental, they could go and help. They just needed to… win this. Quickly.

It was hard to remember as their bone staff bounced off the earth elemental and they were slammed back into their own bone wall, wheezing as a piece of bone armour gave way. Turns out broken bones were no less painful on the outside of the body. There was a bit of knowledge that they would give a great deal never to have learned.

They curled their fists, dropping the staff and slipping in close to minimise the room the elemental had to charge and knock them down. Max damage, they willed. Move fast, do max damage, don't stop hitting. Don't go down.

For a moment Janus thought another fire breath was coming his way, that he was down and they were done for. The others would arrive in the dead of night and there'd be nothing to find but charred remains.

At the last possible moment, the dragon choked, eyes closing as Janus' mind power took effect and immediately taking more damage from the moonbeam.

Astrid used the moment to dive in close with two sword blows, and Janus let loose a dissonant whisper as the damage seemed to jolt it out of its momentary incapacitation and it took off again.

"You ok?" Janus asked, tracking the beast and trusting Astrid to admit if she needed healing.

"Yeah. Barb?"

Janus flicked a tendril of power across Barb's mind, risking the distraction rather than lose cover. "Hurt. We need to…"

Even as he spoke, the mail coach exploded into flame, strafing them with flaming debris and hurtling them both into the drainage ditch.

Astrid landed hard, feeling dark muddy water stinging at open wounds, but at least thankful that the fire raining down around them wouldn't catch on her now wet clothes. A small bonus, but she'd take anything right now. The mail coach was aflame, and Barb was brightly lit despite the encroaching dark as they took another terrible blow from a compacted dirt fist, driving them to the ground.

Janus was breathing hard beside her, eyes clenched shut and hands wrapped around what she could now see was a charred piece of wood, protruding from his stomach.

"Fuck," she whispered, shoving herself to her knees. She pushed Janus' hands aside and cast cure wounds as she yanked the shrapnel free and put pressure down on the wound, steeling herself against his yell. It was still oozing blood as she pulled her hands away, not enough healing done, but all she had time for right now.

She pushed the moonbeam over to where Barb was fighting, knowing they had at least a chance of getting the elemental to stay inside the radius. The dragon was already wise to it, staying far out of range. They were running out of tricks. And sleeves.

"You good?" she demanded, not waiting for an answer as she scrambled back onto the road and headed for the next tiny piece of oh-so-flammable cover available. Staying together in one place wasn't safe right now, but cover was scarce and there was no help coming.

This war had gone on way too long, Barb decided, if they had enough experience to decide that broken ribs were their least favourite broken bone. They gasped raggedly, and willed the blood taste out of their mouth as they forced themselves back to their feet. Fists up, bone armour… well, in as good a state as could be expected, considering. There was another slam coming, and there was pretty much no chance it wasn't going to knock them out, but before that there was time for one more flurry of blows.

Maybe, maybe they could knock this monster out before…

They landed the last blow, a solid drive that made something tear inside Barb's chest, and the elemental stayed standing. There was a flicker of hope as the moonbeam slid into place and licked white flames around the elemental's skin, scorching off an outer layer of crust with radiant light, but the elemental put its shoulder down, and slammed forwards.

A beat. Barb hit the ground. Another.

Still conscious but with every iota of air knocked out of their lungs, Barb was confused for a moment, and then confused about why they'd fallen to the side, instead of slamming back into the bone wall like they'd been expecting. And then they finally managed to drag in a lung full of air and turn to look back.

"Teo?"

The earth elemental slid to the ground from where it had been impaled on two diamond blades. Teo, diamond from the tips of his hair to the ends of his toes, clothed in pyjamas with lines of little ducks stitched into it and without goggles, shoes or shield, glanced their way.

"No one thought to put my armour back on before dragging me out onto the field of battle? Seriously? No one?"

There was another gout of fire from behind, and Teo reached down a diamond hand, suddenly without a sword, and yanked Barb to their feet.

Teo gave Barb a moment to catch their balance before turning towards where a wall of flame was erupting. Everything was out of focus without his goggles, but a dragon was big enough to spot even so.

Barb was clearly hurt, and Teo would be surprised if Astrid and Janus weren't too, given the state of the battlefield, but as he tried to spot them he saw the bright light of Astrid's shooting star slam into scales.

Alive then. Thank all the Gods.

Taking advantage of the glowing mark helping him target without his goggles, Teo flung a chromatic orb and didn't wait to see if it landed before dashing across the scored and damaged road.

He felt like he should be breathless as he slid into cover next to Astrid, and he didn't let himself stop to consider the fact that he wasn't breathless because he wasn't breathing. There would be all sorts of other shit to deal with once they got out of this, so he pushed it aside and focused on the very scorched Astrid, and Janus prone and bleeding just beyond.

"You both look like shit."

Barb slid into cover behind him as Astrid yelped, and Janus turned to gape in his direction.

"Oh hey," Barb gasped from behind them all. "Teo's up."

"Teo," Astrid started. "What…"

Teo would have at least tried to explain, but there was a tremendous thump as the dragon landed square on top of the burning cart, sending splinters flying. Its tail was flying for Janus, but Teo had the time to intercept, putting himself in the way and letting the blow slide him along the ground. One set of claws sailed past his ear, and another tore into the sleeve of his borrowed pyjamas, but the claws didn't pierce deeper.

They both had a moment of surprise as they considered his unblemished diamond skin, and then Astrid was leaping past with swords raised, and Barb with their bone and then Janus with the Psi blade.

Teo opened his empty hands, and then closed them around the materialising blades, waiting for an opening as the others landed their blows. He flexed his arms, right and left, and saw as Janus opened a wound in the scales. Driving forwards, he plunged the blades deep.

"Does anyone have my goggles?" Teo asked as the dragon died, squinting around the battlefield as flames half-lit everything with moving shadows.

"They were with your shield, in the cart." Barb pointed back towards the stolen mail cart, and Teo turned to follow their point.

"The one that's on fire?" Teo groaned.

"Hey, there's a lot of things on fire right now, Teo," Barb mused, voice tight as bone armour receeded. "Just be glad you're not one of them."

Fortunately a little investigation dug up Teo's shield, and the goggles threaded through the straps, defended from the fire beneath it.

Teo took a moment and let his right arm recede, settling the straps of his shield back into place like an old friend, making sure the mechanism hadn't been damaged by the flames. It felt a little awkward over pyjamas, rather than the usual padding of his gambeson, but even that tiny bit of familiar armour was enough to settle him. Their bags were all a little scorched, and the delicate embroidery on Janus' was surely ruined, but it didn't look like the contents had been damaged too badly, so he collected them and started back towards the others.

With new clarity, he could see Astrid limping out of the forest leading two uncertain looking rising horses and a placid but enormous cart horse. She stopped well clear of anything that might be on fire and waved them over.

Teo stopped to wait for Janus to finish bandaging himself up and join him and then headed towards Astrid.

"None of the carts are in a fit state," Astrid explained, taking her bag from Teo. "I figured we'd just ride? We'll move faster that way."

Teo looked up at the cart horse, easily head and shoulders taller than him at its lowest point, and shrugged. Some days you just had to roll with things.

"Someone's going to have to help me up," he sighed.

The riding horses had easily settled into matching the long plodding gait of the cart horse that Barb and Teo were sharing, using tied together bits of rope in place of the snapped long reins. Its back was so wide that Teo was fairly sure his hips were never going to be the same again. But then, looking down at his hand where he was holding on, he remembered that very little was going to be the same.

They'd travelled more or less in silence, initially out of fear that the remaining four Hunters would appear and later out of exhaustion as the adrenaline wore off and injuries started making themselves known. They were four hours ride from the city when they came to a stop, far enough that the smell of burning had faded into nothing, and the horses had lost the terrified look in their eyes.

Astrid looked back. "We should be close enough, here. We might as well take a rest. Eat something."

"Replace bandages," Teo added, seeing the dark stain that was seeping through the hastily applied wrappings on Astrid's side. He threw one leg over the horse's back, regretting the action immediately as he realised how far it was to the ground.

"Teo?" Janus asked, as he crumped to the ground with a yelp.

"Fine. I'm fine," he groaned. "Just forgot about gravity for a minute there. Also my legs feel like jello."

"Diamond jello. Hmm." Barb said from above him. "How does that even work?"

"It's just a phrase," Teo said, pulling himself up off the floor. "I'm going to find somewhere to change."

"Oh, but I was so enjoying the little duckies," Janus said, sliding to the ground lightly as though he hadn't just been in the saddle for four hours alongside the rest of them. Despite his easy movement, his voice sounded like he'd been gargling sand, and the rips in his clothing were showing off some hastily healed scabs.

"They do suit you," Astrid added. "I bet we could mend that rip, if you wanted?"

"I hate you all, very much."

There was another moment of silence as Teo disappeared into the trees for a moment, and Barb slid to the floor, keeping hold of the horse for a moment to avoid crumpling like Teo had. Reminding their legs what solid ground felt like.

Barb glanced over their shoulder towards where Teo had gone, trying to supress the feeling that something terrible was creeping up on them. Teo was fine. Teo was just out of sight, Teo was not dying or succumbing to the diamond that was consuming him. That had already happened, and really he seemed pretty okay about the whole thing.

"Is it wrong that…" Barb started, just as Astrid called out; "Teo, please understand that I love you and respect your need for privacy, but we have just had a very close call and if you aren't back in five minutes I am coming after you."

"I'm fine, Astrid," Teo's voice came back.

"Five minutes."

"Yes, yes. Sure."

"Thank you," Astrid sing-songed, and then slumped down onto the ground, watching the horses graze.

It was barely a couple of minutes later when Teo stepped back out from between the trees, fully dressed and buckling his gambeson with a practiced one-handed motion. "See, still alive," he said.

Janus had taken a seat next to Astrid on the ground and was helping her replace the bandages that had bled through. Teo left his breastplate and shield by the bags at his side and took a seat next to Janus. Barb fished briefly through their own bag, before heading over and sprawling out on the grass in front of all three of them, looking up into the sky.

Barb hadn't been paying attention when Teo did whatever it was he did that drew Janus' attention, but they heard the curious noise that Janus made, and looked over to see Teo stretching two hands out in front of himself and considering them. One arm was bare where the gambeson sleeve had been sown short, both hands caught the moonlight and glittered.

It had been a long time since Teo had been in possession of two matching hands, and he considered them for a long moment before retracting the right again, reaching for his shield.

"Teo, are you…" Janus started.

"I get to choose now," Teo said, sounding a little distant even to his own ears as he went through the familiar motions of buckling on his breastplate and shield. He cleared his throat, focused up. "I mean, not so much my appearance. My… body."

"If you make yourself taller than me, we'll be having words," Barb shot out.

Teo looked up, startled. "No, that's not… I *like* being a gnome, I don't need to be taller, none of my clothes would fit."

"But you get to choose now," Janus repeated. "To change." He was smiling, obviously getting it in a way the others weren't. He tipped sideways, knocked their shoulders together. "Congratulations, Teo."

"It's not… I'm not… look, nothing's going to change right away, okay? I'm still not joining the swim suit beach party. That's… a lot. But yeah." Janus' smile was infectious and growing. "Yeah."

"Oh…" Barb said. And then; "Oooh. I'd kind of assumed… well, shit."

"So long as when you do decide to go shopping for that swimsuit, you tell us." Astrid said. "We have opinions on this kind of thing."

"To be clear, I do not have opinions on this kind of thing," Barb objected.

"Well, good. So… home?" Teo pointed out the airship that was coming into sight over the edge of the trees, engines whirring as it slowed.

Kree was already sweeping through the air in their direction, and Zendar stepped out of the shadows of the trees with Luna at his feet, the wolf bolting for Astrid the moment she was visible. As Kree landed, and Zendar stepped forwards, all of their attention was on Teo's new form, and his skin was itching already with the attention. This was going to be hard, but… maybe good?

"Yeah, let's go home."


End file.
